Lateral steering control is an important feature in projectile guidance systems. In such systems, each projectile is fired from a gun or as a rocket towards a target and is guided to the target via an informational beam of energy radiated from a source, usually at the firing location. The information beam contains relative location codes by which the projectile, upon receipt of a particular code, will compute appropriate steering commands to correct its flight path. An example of a guidance system utilizing an informational beam is illustrated in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,186,899.
Prior art techniques for providing steering control of projectiles and self-propelled missiles often employ nose mounted controllable fins, or side mounted thrust ports connected through adjustable control valves to self-contained sources of highly-pressurized gases. Conventionally, such sources are either common to the fuel source that propels the missile, or in the case of fired projectiles, are separately ignited by an auxiliary device and dedicated to the steering function. Examples of the common fuel source missile steering techniques are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,139,725 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,210,937. An example of a separate fuel source for lateral steering is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,334.
Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,357 teaches the use of ram air entering a nose opening in a projecticle, for effecting lateral steering thrust through oppositely oriented side openings by controlling the synchronous orientation of a ram air divering mechanism located between the nose opening and the side openings.
Co-pending and commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,573,648 describes a ram air steering system in which a combustion chamber, containing a solid fuel propellant, is located forward of the diverting mechanism to provide enhanced steering thrust forces when ignited by ram air.